case study

Brand Development:How to Scale Your Design Business

Challenge

After beginning her career at a Fortune 50 corporation, Ann Lowengart saw the opportunity to apply her consumer goods strategy experience to a creative field, cultivate happy clients and grow a healthy bottom line. After spending a decade building a successful interior design business, Ann came to Coupar after identifying three key areas to take her business to the next level:

Manage the risk – and reduce the headache – of running a large firm

Uplevel clients and project budgets

Achieve a work-life balance while maximizing revenue

SOLUTION

The first step in accelerating a firm’s business is to gain a baseline on how it works. We integrated our design consultants into Ann Lowengart Interiors' projects to provide support while observing and gathering data. At three months in, we took these data points and worked with the client to implement a “blueprint” of how a design firm functions at its most efficient and profitable, customizing processes the firm. At 6 months – and biannually going forward – this blueprint is evaluated and iterated to realign with the firm’s growth objectives. Monthly billings quickly increased as processes were normalized and inefficiencies were eliminated.

The objective of the next stage was to diversify Ann Lowengart Interiors' pipeline and uplevel the target client, removing the barrier that the firm was the “best kept secret” in the Bay Area design community. Ann Lowengart participated in the 2016 San Francisco Designer Showcase with metrics to break down this barrier: design a room that engaged visitors and the media, garner press features, sell pieces from the room and gain the interest of a new client.

Leveraging the success of Showcase – and the awareness it brought to the firm – Coupar continued to hone business objectives. In parallel, the team focused on scaling the business to support the intake of new, elevated clients that came through key industry contacts: architects, builders and realtors as well as word-of-mouth referrals. Marketing initiatives were scheduled for brand positioning, PR, social media, website development and events to maintain a steady message drumbeat keeping the firm top of mind and in-demand, supporting continuous bottom-line growth.

Client

Scope

Business Operations Project Management Brand Marketing Website Development Public Relations

Location

San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond

What We Do

We are the only consultancy with a proven record of growing clients’ businesses. Our team of 25 design and marketing professionals service an elite community of designers, architects, art curators, builders, artisans and industry style makers.

1-3 months: Integrate + observe processes for key data points3-6 months: Implement custom process blueprint that ladders up to business goals6 months+: Scale the business to scale the clients with ongoing realignment to goals

Ready to take your Business to the next level? contact us for a free consultation.